Windows 8 Mini-Review

If you are thinking about upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7, my suggestion would be to stop thinking about it and save your money for something else. Cheap as the upgrade is, the user interface is terrible.

It’s like Microsoft have taken the new user interface (previously known as Metro) and smashed into the traditional desktop interface, with the interface layers competing for the user’s attention. Some components have gone completely – the Start button – and other components are hidden in unintuitive places: how do I shutdown the PC? Charms slide in from the right – even the name gives no clear idea as to what charms do. The new front page pops up in the bottom left. The desktop appears sometimes. Apps are windowed or full-screen but you can’t get from one to the other. It’s truly awful.

Before anyone accuses me of being an old dog resistant to new tricks, I have bought every single previous version of Ms DOS and (consumer) Windows as it came out, (with the exception of Windows ME). Not this time, though. I’m sticking with Windows 7.

I like the Windows Phone 7 / 8 user interface and it’s great on a phone or tablet but on a desktop or a laptop with a mouse, it’s a disaster. Here’s my prediction….Windows 8 will be to Windows 7 what Vista was to XP. That’s how bad it is.

Bruce, I borrowed a friend’s laptop for a few hours but I did actually use it as a working machine during that time – I wasn’t just “mucking around”. Too many things were extra mouse clicks, or exercises in frustration that won’t get any better. And I couldn’t see any significant benefits within the OS over Windows 7. Frankly Windows 8 is pretty much Windows 7 + Metro.
On the other hand, I had a work-supplied Windows Phone 7 device for several months which I loved.
I stand by my view that the interface-previously-know-as Metro is great on touch devices, but for keyboard and mouse as implemented in Windows 8, it’s broken.